Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched on Wednesday a new gas pipeline link to the Islamic Republic.
The 30.5 km (19 miles)-long pipeline, which is the second gas route linking Turkmenistan and Iran, will boost Turkmen natural gas supplies to Iran from the current 8 billion cubic meters to 14 billion cu m and subsequently to 20 billion cu m annually.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Berdymukhamedov said that the new gas pipeline demonstrated both countries' potential to finance and build large-scale facilities.
In turn, Ahmadinejad said that the "launch of the new gas pipeline will be a good stimulus for the development of gas cooperation between Turkmenistan and Iran and the delivery of Turkmen gas to the Persian Gulf and world markets via Iran."
In mid-December, the leaders of three Central Asian countries and China inaugurated a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China.
The presidents of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China gathered at Turkmenistan's Samandepe gas field to unveil the pipeline, which runs across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into China's western Xinjiang region.
The pipeline is planned to pump up to 40 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas to China annually over the next 30 years, and is scheduled reach its projected capacity by 2013.
The pipeline is 1,833 km (1,139 miles) long, of which 188 km (117 miles) is in Turkmenistan and 530 km (329 miles) in Uzbekistan. The pipeline bypasses Russia, to which Turkmenistan has sold most of its gas until recently.
SERAKHS, Turkmenistan, January 6 (RIA Novosti)
